The present disclosure relates to applications for use on mobile communication devices, and, more particularly, to reporting actions taken by users of mobile communication devices that involve the acquisition and/or use of mobile applications (“mobile apps”).
The rapidly growing capabilities of mobile communication devices (e.g., “smartphones”) and their supporting networks present significant opportunities for the distribution and presentation of various forms of content. One such form of content is referred to collectively as mobile applications (“mobile apps”), which are essentially software applications that enable a user of a mobile communication device to perform various functions, ranging from entertainment (such as games and media players) to more practical functions (such as mobile banking).
Users of mobile communication devices acquire mobile apps from a variety of sources such as through presentations of offers for mobile apps that are featured in other mobile apps. That is, a user may be actively using a particular mobile app and be presented with an offer for another mobile app. Such presentations for offers for mobile apps are presented by one or more presentation networks that work in association with the mobile communication networks that support mobile communication devices. In some cases, presentations of offers for the same mobile app may be presented by more than one presentation network to the same mobile communication device.
When a user, using a first mobile app, is presented with an offer for a second mobile app, and then at some point in time acquires the second mobile app, or takes some other similar qualifying action, such as supplying contact information (“registration”), a “conversion” is said to have taken place, if the action can be tied to a click on an item of online or mobile content. As used herein, a “qualifying action” (also referred to herein generally as an “action”) is a download of an app, a user registration, or other user activity other than the user clicking on an item of online or mobile content, simply to view it. Accordingly, a qualifying action may rise to the level of a conversion, when the action is tied to a click on an item of online content. It is of interest to both the producers of mobile apps, as well as the presentation networks that present them, to record and report qualifying actions generally, and conversions specifically, with respect to which apps on which actions were taken, and through which presentation networks conversions occurred.
In order to facilitate the recording and reporting of qualifying actions and conversions, a producer of a mobile app typically is required to embed one or more code snippets (also referred to as “action software development kits” or “action SDKs”) within the app. The one or more code snippets cause an action notification (or “action request message”) to be transmitted to the presentation network through which the user was presented with, and/or took action regarding, the particular mobile app. However, as previously described, a particular app may be presented by several different presentation networks. Accordingly, a producer of an app must embed several separate code snippets within the app in order to enable action reporting to each of the presentation networks presenting that app.
As a result, producers of apps are required to create apps having increased file size to accommodate the code snippets or action SDKs for each of the presentation networks managing offer presentations of these apps. Furthermore, should an app producer wish to add or delete a presentation network from those presentation networks designated to receive action notifications, the process of doing so is cumbersome and time-consuming. In addition, in order to review the recorded and reported action information, app producers must log into each presentation network that presents their apps of interest.